The Texans entered their home opener fresh off going toe-to-toe with a Super Bowl favorite in a narrow week 1 loss. The Jacksonville Jaguars, meanwhile, were strafed in their opener and came to Houston with several of their top players sidelined.

The signs pointed to a comfortable Texans win. But as they say, that’s why they play the games.

Here’s a look at the good, bad and ugly from Texans 13, Jaguars 12:

The good

1. A win is a win is a win. Talk-radio callers and internet commenters won’t be kind after that Texans effort, but the good thing for the team is there are no style points in the NFL standings. There’s also no such thing as a bad win. Take that W and move on.

2. Whitney Mercilus. The Texans might want to start talking to the pending unrestricted free agent about a new contract since they now seem amenable to negotiating in season. After a sack and interception in week 1, Mercilus had two sacks and two forced fumbles. One of the latter came deep in Jacksonville territory and set up the Texans’ clinching touchdown.

3. Carlos Hyde. Picked up for scraps (or in this case, Martinas Rankin) before the season in a trade with the Chiefs, the veteran running back churned out 90 yards on 20 carries Sunday. The Texans suddenly don’t seem too hamstrung by the season-ending injury to starter Lamar Miller judging by the early contributions of Hyde and fellow newcomer Duke Johnson.

1. Game mismanagement. Maybe we should just give this a permanent spot here. The way the Texans operated with the ball in the final minute of the first half was the opposite of “sense of urgency.” With 46 seconds left in the half, they ran a third-and-5 play that gained 7 yards. They didn’t snap the ball again until 22 seconds remained, a whopping 24 seconds between plays. They didn’t take their first timeout until 15 seconds were left. After running a first-and-goal play from the 4 with nine seconds left, they ran a play that took seven seconds and was an incomplete pass, forcing them to kick field goal. They ended the half with two timeouts in their pocket. Last we checked, those don’t roll over to the next week. Game management, or mismanagement, continues to be an issue for coach Bill O’Brien.

2. Jacksonville’s 2-point play. Given how hard it was for the Jaguars to move the ball (and when they did, it often came back because of penalties), coach Doug Marrone’s decision to go for two points and the lead with 30 seconds left was understandable. What wasn’t, however, was the decision to give the ball to Leonard Fournette instead of taking advantage of quarterback Gardner Minshew II’s ability to extend plays and going with a run/pass option. Predictably, Fournette was stuffed as he was most of the game (47 yards on 15 carries), with Justin Reid stopping him shy of the goal line.

3. Texans’ play-calling. Against a team minus one of its top pass rushers (Yannick Ngakoue) and a starting cornerback (A.J. Bouye), the Texans and their array of skill-position talent hardly resembled the offense that attacked New Orleans time and again Monday. And why, late in the fourth quarter, did the Texans opt to throw deep on second and 9? The clock was Jacksonville’s enemy, especially after losing a timeout on a pass-interference challenge. The Texans needed to run the ball and take time off the clock, not give the Jaguars a lifeline.

1. Bickering Jaguars. Apparently, you can’t have a Jaguars game without some friendly fire. This time, it was cornerback Jalen Ramsey and Marrone going at each other during the first half, ostensibly because Marrone didn’t challenge a completion to DeAndre Hopkins that Ramsey seemed to believe was incomplete. We’d tell you what Ramsey had to say after the game, but the normally loquacious DB declined interview requests.

Greg Rajan is the senior editor for Texas Sports Nation, the Houston Chronicle's sports website and also curates the daily TXSN newsletter. He joined the Chronicle in January 2015 as the online sports editor. He previously worked as the sports editor at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. He led that sports section to three Associated Press Sports Editors top-10 national awards and his work has been honored by APSE and the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors. He also has worked at the Austin American-Statesman and Temple Daily Telegram.

He is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University and Bowie High School in Austin.